John Browne

The final results are in Alan Kelly was elected on the 8th Count. Below are how the transfers went.

Ireland South Transfers as of Count 8.

I was wrong About Sinnot, It’s bye bye Ferris. Transfers for count 7 is below.

Euro Elections Transfers After Count 7

Updated for count 6 and the Elimination of Colm Burke. Looks like there were significant numbers of transfers to Alan Kelly and Sean Kelly will now have a surplus of 10180 to distribute bye bye Kathy….

Euro Elections Transfers After Count 6

Below is a Graph showing the transfers in the Ireland south / Munster Euro election constituency up to count 5.

Graph of Munster South Euro Transfers Count 5

Allocaton of Seats in the EuroElection in Ireland based on Political Party from 1979 to 2009.

Euro Election Seat Allocation Rep of Ireland '79 to '99

National trends For all the Political Parties in the Euro Election from 1979 to 2009 using first preference votes.

National Euro Election 1st Preference % '79 to '99

Additional graphs will be updated as I generate them by constituency.

Ireland Euro Election Electorate and votes

Trends Ireland South/Munster

Trends Ireland East / Leinster

Trends Ireland West / Connaught Ulster

Trends Dublin

With 4 of the 5 Electoral Areas in County Limerick Having declared, below are the trends of the percentage of  1st preference votes for all the main political parties from 1999, 2004 and 2009. This Post will be updated as more results are made available.
Updated 23:30 Final Results are in

Limerick County Council Party Trends '99 to '09

 Adare (7): Tomas Hannon Lab, Patrick Fitzgerald IND, James Cavanagh FF, Leonard Enright FF, Rose Brennan FG, Richard Butler FG, Leo Walsh FG.
Kilmallock (5): Mike Donegan FF, Eddie Ryan FF, James Heffernan Lab, Mike Houlihan FG, William O’Donnell FG.
Castleconnell (7): Eddie Wade FF, Noel Gleeson FF, Brigid Teefy Ind, Mary Jackman FG, JohnEganFG, Mary Harty FG, Michael Sheahan FG .
Rathkeale (4): John Sheahan FG, David Naughton FG,Stephen Keary FG, Kevin Sheahan FF.
Newcastle Wst (5): Michael Collins FF, Francis Foley FF, Liam Galvin FG, Patrck O’Donovan FG, Jerome Scanlan FG

Below is the current declared make up of the council as well as histrical make up of the council.

Limerick County Council Seats

Limerick County Council Seats 2009

Limerick County Council Seats 2004

Limerick County Council Seats 1999

Limerick City Council Results and trends are available here

Limerick City Council % Trend '91 to '09

Above is a chart showing the trends for all the Political Parties in the Limerick city council Local Elections. This is based on first preference votes.
The 2009 Numbers are from Tallies provided by fiannfuddy on Politics dot ie.
The 2009 Numbers have now been updated with the final first preference results.
The overall trend is showing a decline in Fianna Fail support in the city at every election sine 1991.

The chart is a total of all the votes cast in all the wards in Limerick City and plotted as a percentage of the total number of votes cast. Limerick city changeds from 4 wards to 3 in 2009.

Below is the current makeup of the Limrick City Council.

North (6): Maurice Quinlivan SF, Kathleen Leddin IND,  Tom Shortt Lab, Michael Hourigan FG, Cormac Hurley FG, Kevin KielyFG.
South (7): Pat Kennedy IND, Joe Leddin Lab, Orla Mcloughlin Lab, Maria Byrne FG, Ger Fahy FG, Jim Long FG, Diarmuid Scully FG.
East (4): Kieran O’Hanlon FF, John Gilligan IND, Gerry Mclouglin Lab, Deins McCarthyFG.

Limerick City Council Seats 2009

Limerick City Council Seats

Charts Below show theMake up of Limerick City Council from the 1991, 1999 and 2004 Local Elections.

Limeick City Council 2004

Limerick City Council 1999

I went to see Watchmen on Saturday night. I have to say I didn’t get it. I’m assured that it was faithful to the comic book but I haven’t read it so I can’t tell. It was as 2 dimensional as comics graphic novels get so I’ll take Mikes word for it. For fucks sake the baddie might as well have had I’m the big baddie tattooed on his forehead. I like movies with explosions, actually I love explosions but the ones in this movie were a bit blue and stupid, even for my taste (and I liked Die Hard 4). At 2 and a half hours it was way too long. I think the movie may have been tainted by the fact that the students behind me kept giggling at the sporadic sex scenes. Some of the violence seemed to be a bit gratuitous just for the sake of it. Definitely deserved an 18s cert, I don’t know why it got a 16.
I think the movie was best summed up by a couple of guys I overheard on the way out of the cinema. They summed it up nicely by saying “Did ya see yer mans blue knob?”

Rating:- Don’t bother. Wait for TV not t pick it up.

With all the talk about Zombie banks I can’t help but wonder how many of our banks have actually joined the ranks of the undead. The more I read in the papers the more I have this sinking feeling that they’re all Zombies. Just looking at some of their current share prices (AIB 39cent, BOI 19cent, IL&P 63cent, Anglo nationalised) and the downgrades they’ve received from the big international banks and rating agencies, it looks like investors have no confidence at all in our financial institutions.
Given that the governemnet is underwriting these banks and that it’s own financial position is arguably in worse position one can’t help but wonder if we’re living in a Zombie country.
In modern mmythology and by that I mean the movies, Zombies seem to be created by bizarre rituals performed by high priests in secret ceremonys and the zombies then go on to create other zombies by taking their pounds of flesh. Does this seem familiar to anyone.
It would seem that the glib metaphore of the Zombie is becoming more and more apt every day when applied to our current financial predicament.
In watching the tv the other night I happened upon a well known fantasy programme in which zombies were running amok. These Zombies were described as “slow moving dimwitted creatures who are dangerous in numbers and can only be stopped by means of decapitation or severe cranial damage inflicted by bludgeoning”. Hmm maybe they’re on to something here.

In the immortal words of the Queen of Hearts “Off with their heads”

I haven’t done an update in ages.
Photos have moved to www.johnbrowne.ie/pixelpost and this blog will be moving to www.johnbrowne.ie/wordpress as soon as I do up a new splash page for www.johnbrowne.ie. I shall start posting again aswell soon.

Garre Du Nord Paris
This placed First in the Beginners Black and White section of the Limerick camera club competition this week.
The photo is taken in Gare du Nord,  Paris, from the top of the steps leading to the Eurostar check-in area. I had to ask 3 heavily armed soldiers to move so that I could get a shot of the station. They were very obliging.
I had arrived on the Eurostar from Kings Cross St. Pancras in London. Compared to St. Pancras Gare du Nord is a bit of a shed. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to take any pictures of the recently renovated St. Pancras station but it is on my list of places to go back to.
The focus point in this photo is the glass at the rear of the trainshed. This is so the grid of panes are sharp as this is the loaction where all the lines in the station are leading.

I was a bit diappointed with the quality of the print I thought it was a bit too dark but other people seemed to like it.

Lindau
This Photo was taken in Lindau in Southern Germany. Lindau sits on Lake Constance (Bodensee) which borders Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The harbour is very sheltered with a wall that surrounds it and a narrow entrance between the Lion and the Lighthouse. The Lion on the left is the symbol of Bavaria. The lights that are visible across the lake are in Bregenz ,Austria. I had started the day in Zurich with a train journey to Konstanz. Then I took a ferry to Friedrichschafen and then on to Lindau. So lots of Photos were taken. This is probably the best of them.
I had to clone out the mobile phone mast on the top of the light house. It was rather unsightly.
This Photo placed second in the beginners colour section of the Limerick camera club December monthly competition this evening.

Karlsplatz Munich
This photo was taken in Karlsplatz in Munich.
I was originally taking photos of Mike in front of the fountain but they weren’t coming out very well so I took a couple of the fountain by itself. It was only when I looked at this one on the screen afterwards that I saw the little girl on the right. I think she adds quite alot to the photo.
The Photo was submitted to the Limerick Camera Club monthly competition challenge section. The challenge was “Water”. The photo didn’t place.
The colour effect was achieved by using a levels adjustment layer in photoshop and changing the black colour

Christmas tree 1

Christmas tree 2

Christmas tree3

The Limerick Christmas tree had its lights turned on this evening. The tree is floating in the river. Apparently it’s taller than last years tree. It’s hard to tell though. I say tree but it’s made of bits of scafolding. Anyway it’s the tallest Christmas decoration in Ireland. It’s still an “Eco tree” whatever that means but it’s missing its wind turbine star this year.

Questions and Answers is just over and I must say it was one of the most entertaining home grown programmes that RTE have put on in a long time.

Willie O'Dea in a sombrero

Great stuff.
Willie ODea got absolutely mauled from all angles. It took a very articulate Pensioner to tell Willie that he had a “Bloody Cheek” and that he “Wasn’t as smrt as he thought he was” to wipe the smug condescending grin from under the tash. This was after Willie told us that we just didn’t understand the complexity of what the government was trying to do.
After that it went from bad to worse for Willie. Two doctors explained how this whole medical card situation was going to impact on GPs and disadvantaged communities.

Willies relief when the subject was changed to education was very short lived. Education seemed to invoke an even bigger response from the audience. One man went so far as to pull out letters from Government ministers promising school buildings, rolling them up in a ball and throwing them at Willie, all the while shouting his very relevant and well made points at Willie. He was well able to make himself heard even when the mic was turned off. The responses drew cheers from the audience, to such an extent that Willies chattering and stuttering couldn’t be heard over the clapping. All this seemed to embolden Eamonn Gilmore and he started shouting down Willie. I don’t blame him really. Willie is really annoying when he talks over everyone and then says “I didn’t interrupt you”. When he does this I feel like shouting at the telly “Yes you did you little Bollix”. When Eamonn gets going he really knows how to make himself heard even over the master of talking over. Bellowing helps. Bowman finally decided it was time to take a break at 50mins into a 1 hour programme.
Great stuff.

Now that defence spending is being cut and barracks are being closed even more of the Minister of Defences remit will be for the Defence of the Government.
Willie had to know he was in for trouble. In Limerick on Saturday he failed to show up to engage the Pensioners who had laid siege to his constituency office. Willie had to be called away to an urgent meeting. There was no urgent meeting to save him tonight. He hunkered down in his bunker and weathered the artillary barrage from all sides with the heaviest guns coming from the audience, popping up now and then to take a few pot shots with his air rifle but to no effect.
Better luck next time Willie.

You have to wonder what Brian thought he was doing putting Willie on Q and A. He must have known what was coming and decided that the Government Butt should be wheeled out instead. As one really angry man in the Audience asked “Why is it you thats always wheeled out here when there’s trouble?” (I’m parahrasing of course).

If you missed this fine piece of telly then you should try and catch it on the RTE website when it becomes available.

Update: Warning real player required

Q1 about medical cards can be found here or below

Q2 about education can be found here or below

Update2

It looks like the governemnt has climbed down over this and set the eligibility limits alot higher. Apparently 95% of people will remain in the medical card system. The details remain to be seen. Hopefully the means test assessment forms will not be too onerous to fill out for the old and the infirm. Whats the bet that with the cost of administering the means test scheme there is no savings made at all.
The next question is. Why hasn’t Harney resigned? Or Lenihan for that matter?